Forbes estimates Phil Knight’s net worth at $24.7B (real-time, 10 Oct 2026, #102 in the world). Most of it is Nike shares held by him and Swoosh, LLC: Nike’s latest filing lists 27,479,487 Class A shares (9.8%) and 35,815,174 Class B shares (2.9%) in his own name; Swoosh, LLC, which he formed in 2015 to hold most of his Class A stock, holds another 221,750,000 Class A shares (78.8%). It is an outside estimate that moves with the share price, not a disclosed figure.
Correction (10 Oct 2026): this page previously showed undated or unsourced net-worth figures. We replaced them with one dated, named estimate and the holdings disclosed in filings, and we now tag every input as filing, reported or estimate.
How we source: figures on this page come from the company’s own filings (SEC 10-K, 10-Q, prospectus and earnings releases, or its annual report), with the period stated next to each number; outside estimates appear only labelled, with their source and date. Last refreshed October 2026. Our methodology.
The most widely cited figure is Forbes’s: $24.7B on 10 Oct 2026, #102 in the world. It is an outside estimate, not a figure Knight or any company has disclosed.
Other outlets publish different figures, and each changes with share prices. Use one source consistently, and always note its date.
How the fortune was built
Phil Knight’s fortune comes from Nike. The timeline below tags each step: SEC filing when it comes from a filing, Reported when it comes from Forbes’s profile.
Phil Knight: the fortune and its milestones Estimate
Before the chart: 1964 Builds Nike, then retires ยท 1964 Starts Blue Ribbon Sports ยท 2015 Forms Swoosh, LLC
12026 ยท Holdings in the proxy SEC filing
Forbes annual list estimates and the real-time estimate (gold); Forbes. Milestones as tagged in the timeline below.
Full timeline, with sources (4 steps)
Phil Knight: how the fortune was built
1964Reported
Starts Blue Ribbon Sports
Knight and his former track coach Bill Bowerman each put up $500 (Forbes).
1964โ2016Reported
Builds Nike, then retires
He retired as chairman in 2016 after 52 years with the company (Forbes).
2015SEC filing
Forms Swoosh, LLC
Created to hold the majority of his Class A shares, which elect most of Nike’s board (Nike proxy).
Jul 2026SEC filing
Holdings in the proxy
Swoosh, LLC: 221.75 million Class A shares (78.8%); Knight directly: 9.8% of Class A and 2.9% of Class B.
What drives the number
Every estimate of Knight’s wealth is the same model: Nike shares held by him and Swoosh, LLC, times Nike’s share price, plus other family holdings and assets. The share count is public, so most of the movement comes from the share price.
Nike shares held by him and Swoosh, LLCSEC filingรNike's share priceMarket data+Other family holdings and assetsEstimate=$24.7BNet-worth estimate, 10 Oct 2026
Nike shares held by him and Swoosh, LLC: 27,479,487 Class A shares (9.8%) and 35,815,174 Class B shares (2.9%) in his own name; Swoosh, LLC, which he formed in 2015 to hold most of his Class A stock, holds another 221,750,000 Class A shares (78.8%) (filing).
Nike's share price: Public market data that changes every trading day.
Other family holdings and assets: Valued by the estimator; not disclosed.
Using one consistent source, Forbes’s annual World’s Billionaires lists, the estimate moved from $26.2B (Mar 2017) to $31.1B (Mar 2026). Because most of it is Nike stock, the line largely tracks the share price.
Estimated net worth over time Estimate
Mar 2017
$26.2B
Mar 2018
$29.6B
Mar 2019
$33.4B
Apr 2020
$29.5B
Apr 2021
$49.9B
Apr 2022
$47.3B
Apr 2023
$45.1B
Apr 2024
$40.9B
Apr 2025
$35.4B
Mar 2026
$31.1B
10 Oct 2026
$24.7B
Annual World’s Billionaires list estimates (Forbes); gold bar = real-time estimate on 10 Oct 2026. All figures are estimates by the same outlet, so they are comparable with each other, not with other outlets’ numbers.
Both lines indexed to 100 at the Mar 2017 list. Net worth: Forbes list estimates and real-time estimate. Share price: month-end close in each list’s month, split-adjusted (Yahoo Finance); latest point: close on 9 Oct 2026. Index levels, not dollars; the gap shows what else moved the estimate (share sales, gifts, other assets).
Forbes real-time estimates on 10 Oct 2026, same outlet and same day, so the bars are comparable. Gold = this page.
What the filings do and don’t say
Disclosed
โ27,479,487 Class A shares (9.8%) and 35,815,174 Class B shares (2.9%) in his own name; Swoosh, LLC, which he formed in 2015 to hold most of his Class A stock, holds another 221,750,000 Class A shares (78.8%) (Nike 2026 proxy statement (filed 15 Jul 2026)).
Not disclosed
โThe value of private holdings, cash or property.
โShares sold or given away outside the filing dates.
What he does now
Knight is Nike’s chairman emeritus and attends board meetings as a non-voting observer (Nike proxy). Forbes says he and his wife Penny have given about $4.5 billion to charity, including pledges of more than $500 million each to the University of Oregon and Stanford.
The Business Engineer view
What Knight’s fortune really measures
Control sits in Swoosh, LLC; the dollar value moves with Nike’s stock. For founders with filed stakes, the share count is public and only the price moves; the estimate is then close to a measurement.
Read any net-worth figure with three questions: who estimated it, on what date, and at what share price. For the company behind the fortune, see Nike on FourWeekMBA.
Frequently asked questions
What is Phil Knight's net worth?
Forbes estimates Phil Knight’s net worth at $24.7B (real-time, 10 Oct 2026, #102 in the world).
How did Phil Knight make his money?
Mainly through Nike. Starts Blue Ribbon Sports: Knight and his former track coach Bill Bowerman each put up $500 (Forbes). Builds Nike, then retires: He retired as chairman in 2016 after 52 years with the company (Forbes).
How much of Nike does Knight own?
Nike’s latest filing lists 27,479,487 Class A shares (9.8%) and 35,815,174 Class B shares (2.9%) in his own name; Swoosh, LLC, which he formed in 2015 to hold most of his Class A stock, holds another 221,750,000 Class A shares (78.8%) (Nike 2026 proxy statement (filed 15 Jul 2026)).
Why do Phil Knight net worth figures differ?
Each outlet multiplies an estimated share count by the share price on a given day and adds its own estimate of other assets, so figures differ by source and by date.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
